I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Protect Your Garden with Beneficial Insects

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosureBy Mavis Butterfield on June 12, 2014 · 9 Comments

Over the years, I have learned that growing a a garden organically does not mean putting the plants in the ground, watering, and waiting for fresh produce to show up. To truly get the most out of your garden, you have to learn to work with nature. Introducing beneficial insects into your garden can help you naturally manage insects that would otherwise destroy your crops. Essentially, you are waging a carefully calculated war in your backyard. You are introducing natural predators of nasty produce sucking insects to maintain the balance in your garden. I would be lying if I didn’t admit to liking the power of it all -ha!

To start, ladybugs are an awesome choice. Believe it or not, it’s not really the actual ladybug that helps to control aphids, etc., as they don’t really eat all that much in their adult state, but rather the larvae that really contribute to the overall health of your garden. Those little babies eat A LOT of soft bodied insects. The key to getting ladybugs to STAY in your garden lies in making it a hospitable place to lay eggs and raise babies. You can order ladybugs onlineor get them at your local nursery.

The most important factor in getting them to stay is how you release them. Release them just after dusk {that ensures that they’ll at least spend the night, as they won’t fly away in the dark} in a well-watered garden. Typically, ladybugs you buy are a wee bit dehydrated, so a place that has plenty of water might entice them to stay and make a home. Also, unfortunately, an ounce of prevention doesn’t really apply with ladybugs. Your garden needs to have some level of aphid {or other sap-sucking insect} problem. No food, no stay.

If you aren’t into buying bugs for your garden, you can do a lot to attract them. Planting appealing scents {herbs like fennel, coriander, and mint, or flowers like marigold} go a long way in drawing the creepy crawlers in. Most beneficial insects are attracted to nectar and pollen {ah, they have a sweet tooth too}, so providing them a buffet to snack on also keeps them around.

Lacewings are another popular choice. While they look, well, um gross, they have an insatiable appetite for aphids, thrips, scales, moth eggs, small caterpillars and mites. They enjoy a bit of nectar to wash down all of the insects they feed on, so make sure to plant plenty of tasty flowers for them to draw the nectar out of.

There is a whole host of predatory bugs that feed on tomato hornworms, thrips, spider mites, many insects’ eggs, leafhopper nymphs, corn earworms and other small caterpillars. Some common ones include pirate bugs, assassin bugs, and ambush bugs {even their names sound tough}. These bugs have been known to attack adult-sized japanese beetles. They are a take-no-prisoner sort of gift to your garden.

Spiders, if you can get past their shifty startling presence, eat a lot of unwanted bugs, and more often than not, are not poisonous {exceptions to your specific location obviously apply}. They get a bad rap, really, because they are so darn ugly {I said it}, but they really can improve the overall health of your garden.

There are a ton more potentially beneficial insects–knowing which are preying on your plants and which to keep helps the overall balance of your garden. Ah, isn’t being one with nature fun?

Comments

I’ve used ladybugs to control the aphids on my tomato plants for the past two years. It’s really amazing – they take care of the problem so quickly. This year, I noticed a few aphids on one tomato plant and figured I’d have to place my order soon. But the next time I checked the plant, there were fewer aphids on those leaves. I turned over another leaf and found a baby praying mantis munching away. He’s clearly taking care of the problem for me!

Glad I haven’t gotten rid of any of the spiders hanging out in my pallet/container garden, then! I sort of thought they were eating the aphids, because I noticed a LOT of aphids for a bit, then I noticed a bunch of spiders moved in and the aphids are almost all gone. Thanks for the interesting post!

Hi Mavis,
I am putting in an order for lady bugs today because we’ve got aphids on our melon plants. We placed several praying mantis egg sacks throughout the garden in spring, and it was pretty rad to see them all scurrying all over the place once they hatched. Unfortunately, my melons are in 1/2 barrels and outside of the regular garden area, and so aren’t really in/around my barrels. Hoping the ladybugs help.
Happy Gardening
~Joanna

Have you tried any of the smaller varieties of melons? They take less time and I had a lot of luck (well…until the squirrels took nearly everything for themselves) last year here in NY. And I’m zone 5B on the best day (5A is up the hill from me- literally a few blocks…I’m just inching out that B status- ha). Minnesota Midget is my favorite. It’s like a little personal sized cantalope. Because they are small they easily climb up a trellis, too.

I had aphids last year but didn’t realize it until the fall when I was reading stuff online planning for this year. So far, I’ve not found many this year. But I am about to have to pull up ALL of my eggplants. It might happen tomorrow actually. These little black bugs are killing them. Which is killing me because I started those darn plants in FEBRUARY. And I am lose them to some teeny tiny bugs?! Grrr! I’ve tried the recommended cayenne pepper dusting and sprays but to no avail. I’ve never had an issue growing eggplant in the past either so this is so sad.

I have a hard time telling the good ones from the bad, but there was no mistaking this morning when I witnessed a bird helping itself to the caterpillars on my brussels sprout plants! It was awesome, I wouldn’t let my kids get out of the car until the bird flew away.

We have gotten praying mantis eggs the last two years, they are fun to watch hatch and they eat like bug killing machines. We did get ladybugs one year and still have some around, anything that naturally helps with bugs is great as we use not chemicals in our yard or garden.

Assassin Beatles are Terriffic ! Most people mistake them for stink bugs. I had some on a huckleberry bush and the only thing that got on the bush was a tobacco worm, but a wasp planted delay destruction devices (eggs) . Watching Gods nature at work is awesome!